"We still like this team a lot," Buss said Thursday in an interview with ESPNLA 710 radio in Los Angeles. "How can you not believe in this team? This team is built to win. It's a very, very solid team. We haven't seen them all together and play together for games. In my mind, we would not consider a temporary fix or blow it up. Why blow up something we have a future with?

"It's very difficult to talk this way because we're five games under or six games under .500, and we've dug ourselves a hole. But at the same time, I feel that if we put it together, we can string seven or eight games in a row and dig ourselves out of this hole. If we play with the energy we've seen in the last two games, then I think you go into the playoffs with momentum."

"We thought Steve Nash was our future point guard for the next three years and we needed a coach we felt would fit with him," Buss said. "That was one of the main issues where we thought that D'Antoni was better than Phil. Well, not better, nobody's better than Phil, but we felt that he fit the team the way we wanted to work it.

"I like D'Antoni a lot. I still believe in him 100 percent. I have no questions about him. We just have to have this team work together and play together. We just don't have enough information to analyze anything. It's just not enough data to put your finger on a problem."

he came out and said he loved Mike Brown to death...his father smacked him and next morning we heard Mike brown was fired....

this time he came out to increase Gasol's value....otherwise there is no other reason...none...teams must have low balling them cause they hear everywhere that they are trying to trade him

I am hoping thats the case

Haha.....you beat me to posting that he said the same thing about Mike Brown before he was canned

He believes in 'Antoni because he was clueless enough to even interview him.....something I would never have done.....much less hire him.
He is just not a basketball guy and he has taken every shortcut that his dad's money would afford him.....really sad. If Jerry wasn't such a chauvinist then Jeanie would be running the team top the top.
Jimmy doesn't think coaching or scouting is the least bit important......after this fiasco maybe he'll get the point.......nah

Mike Brown got us to the WCF. We would've won if we had someone to stop Westrbook.

LA might not even make the "playoffs" under Dantoni.

Dantoni is better than Mike Brown?

You gotta be kidding me. Under Mike Brown teams avgd 95 against us. Under Dantoni teams now avg 107points.

Hahahaha........apparently you don't know me at all I never wanted 'Antoni under any circumstances and am not saying that he is better than Mike Brown. Everyone on here knows that I wanted Mike Brown fired and I'm still very happy that they did, I'm just pissed about them hiring another terrible coach instead of Phil or Sloan or other candidates who would've gotten us to a championship this year.
Amazing that we hired the 2 worst guys available

Nah....I know how to run a businesses and when your business sucks you lose money. It doesn't take to long to go from the penthouse to the sewer.....remember when Myspace was red hot?
If you had any idea.....any at all, you would know that it would take no more than 3 home playoff games to have paid Phil's salary in full........now speaking of Phil, if you knew anything about me you would know that I am NOT a big Phil guy.....never have been, but in light of the disaster that MB turned the team into, and the talent we had amassed it was the safest choice to hire Phil. Why.....he has won more titles than anyone ever and THIS would be the best roster he has EVER HAD.

Spending other people's money? What a loony statement, the Lakers would definitely make a ton more money this year if they hired Phil.......maybe you need to go to business school? U.S.C could help you out as they did for me last century

The Lakers have become the joke of the NBA this year, and you don't spend $100 million to lose.....THAT is idiotic business, so if you have to pay $10 million more to make $30 million more plus additional revenue....then only an idiotic businessman passes on this deal.

Now let's say....god help us, that YOU owned the Lakers and sat on @ss like Nero and watched Rome burn....not the TV show....lol, and the Clippers won the title 2 out of the next 3 years, Kobe and Nash retired......now where is your legacy? You become as obsolete as a jumbo 1980's cell phone (See Wall Street, Money Never Sleeps ) It will be a hard, agonizing road back......just ask the Celtics. Sure, we're a bit spoiled now but a smart fan knows that you better get as spoiled as possible when you have the talent, spoiled by success.

You have much to learn

By the way Mr. Sax, I know what his name is but since that Mther Focker has never even considered playing defense he gets no d from me........he's just 'Antoni.

Have you ever thought that maybe the Lakers aren't a very good team anymore or are you like those Raider fans OR Steelers fans that still live in the past with the Steel Curtain? Do you honestly think that the Lakers could have beaten the Thunder the other night if they had a better coach? Management has surrendered to the fans in that they expect to win a championship EVERY YEAR!!! Ain't gonna happen. ALL teams get better. Accept it! Do you really think that Dwight Howard is a great player?? Please, you're kidding, right? All of you who lobbied for Dwight....you got taken. You bought into the bullshit hype. He's jive.

Seems to me that all that Laker management cares about is that Kobe gets scoring champ of the year. Hell, it's LA. Fans just care about reverse dunks.

Maybe it's time to do the "R" word. You know, rebuild. Get young, hungry guys. Steve Nash, Dwight Howard?? You gottem'. So what do you think, eh?

Have you ever thought that maybe the Lakers aren't a very good team anymore or are you like those Raider fans OR Steelers fans that still live in the past with the Steel Curtain? Do you honestly think that the Lakers could have beaten the Thunder the other night if they had a better coach? Management has surrendered to the fans in that they expect to win a championship EVERY YEAR!!! Ain't gonna happen. ALL teams get better. Accept it! Do you really think that Dwight Howard is a great player?? Please, you're kidding, right? All of you who lobbied for Dwight....you got taken. You bought into the bullshit hype. He's jive.

Seems to me that all that Laker management cares about is that Kobe gets scoring champ of the year. Hell, it's LA. Fans just care about reverse dunks.

Maybe it's time to do the "R" word. You know, rebuild. Get young, hungry guys. Steve Nash, Dwight Howard?? You gottem'. So what do you think, eh?

The most ridiculous thing you have ever said.....seriously.
Compare the current roster to the roster we had for our last 2 championships.....so if we are not good now we were horrific then according to your assessment of our current team.....forget Dwight, we won titles without Bynum....besides Dwight's 10 shots per game don't hurt us. It seems like you are blinded by the completely obvious, we have a terrible coach who only a moron would hire. No hindsight, I was furious that they even interviewed the guy.
A good coach would put the players in the right spots, run the right offense and defense and either win the title or get to the finals......are you going to tell me that this team is not better than what Phil had......please, that makes you sound like our 2 coaches.

As for my Raiders, they suck, I know they suck, I laugh about it because what else can I do. They, just like the Lakers keep hiring incompetent coaches.....so guess what, kids don't even remember that they were once the winningest franchise in all of sports......nor that they won 3 Super Bowls............Jimmy seems happy to lead us down that same path.
Remember when your friends would offer you free Clippers tickets and you would say HELL NO!!!! Those could soon be Lakers tickets.
Ask the Bulls how quick and easy it is to get back to the top......Celtics........hell, it was a long time between Showtime and Kobe.
Ask the Knicks how good 'Antoni is

Please Mr. Sax, post some sensible stuff, I know you are better than this.....sincerely

I can't believe some of the posts that I've read. People clearly are only reading box scores and not watching games or possibly just never played basketball. Watching the games you can see the odd rotations, bad spacing, and an overall horrible strategy. It's a coach that's not working to his rosters strengths. It's not that the Lakers need to rebuild. This is an extremely talented lineup. Quite possibly the one of the biggest disappointments to ever happen in league history.... they are that talented. Buss has wasted money on coaches that everyone knew wouldn't get the job done.

I can't believe some of the posts that I've read. People clearly are only reading box scores and not watching games or possibly just never played basketball. Watching the games you can see the odd rotations, bad spacing, and an overall horrible strategy. It's a coach that's not working to his rosters strengths. It's not that the Lakers need to rebuild. This is an extremely talented lineup. Quite possibly the one of the biggest disappointments to ever happen in league history.... they are that talented. Buss has wasted money on coaches that everyone knew wouldn't get the job done.

I asked a longtime diehard Knicks fan. He said some very similar things as you about D'Antoni. He completely agreed and told me D'Antoni was terrible all season with the Knicks with lineups changes during and between games, spacing, everything else.

I asked a longtime diehard Knicks fan. He said some very similar things as you about D'Antoni. He completely agreed and told me D'Antoni was terrible all season with the Knicks with lineups changes during and between games, spacing, everything else.

The Knicks roster hasn't changed that much. Of course adding Kidd is like another coach too, but outside of that they have a lot of the same guys and they're playing far better under a different system. It just makes sense that 'antoni needs to get over his ego and adjust his system.

The most ridiculous thing you have ever said.....seriously.
Compare the current roster to the roster we had for our last 2 championships.....so if we are not good now we were horrific then according to your assessment of our current team.....forget Dwight, we won titles without Bynum....besides Dwight's 10 shots per game don't hurt us. It seems like you are blinded by the completely obvious, we have a terrible coach who only a moron would hire. No hindsight, I was furious that they even interviewed the guy.
A good coach would put the players in the right spots, run the right offense and defense and either win the title or get to the finals......are you going to tell me that this team is not better than what Phil had......please, that makes you sound like our 2 coaches.

As for my Raiders, they suck, I know they suck, I laugh about it because what else can I do. They, just like the Lakers keep hiring incompetent coaches.....so guess what, kids don't even remember that they were once the winningest franchise in all of sports......nor that they won 3 Super Bowls............Jimmy seems happy to lead us down that same path.
Remember when your friends would offer you free Clippers tickets and you would say HELL NO!!!! Those could soon be Lakers tickets.
Ask the Bulls how quick and easy it is to get back to the top......Celtics........hell, it was a long time between Showtime and Kobe.
Ask the Knicks how good 'Antoni is

Please Mr. Sax, post some sensible stuff, I know you are better than this.....sincerely

Not to take sides here because I see where you and mr sax are both coming from. I'd like to answer the first part of your post.

When we had the roster that won 2 chmpionships, it wasn't just about the stars but we had also had very good role players step up when they were needed the most. Take for example Ariza's performance against Orlando in the finals, or Artest's big offensive output against the celtics in game 7. These are just examples of how Phil Jackson had brought the best out of all of his players, and when the time had come, the team was always playoff-ready.

Now let us compare the two rosters. This roster has 5 guys that can average 20 points a game on any other team. Now lets look at the role guys.

* Did we expect Jodie Meeks to be as inconsistent as he is thus far into the season?

* Did we expect Jamison to be inconsistent as he is thus far into the season?

* Would guys like Darius Morris get playing time on other teams?

This all leads to what I think, is just one question regarding this team. With Nash, Kobe, Dwight, and Pau Gasol all having conflicting styles of basketball, could the main problem of this lakers team be that they do not yet have an identity? I think thats the main issue. If they had any idea of what the team's identity would be, we can probably count on the role players all contributing appropriately.

This now presents the problem that D'Antoni is forcing an identity on this team that cannot come away successful, with this team being considerably old, and our youngest starter is a Center, which are generally slower than all the other positions in the starting five. Add to that the fact that D'Antoni also wants this team to be a bunch of gunners. With all due respect to him, Kobe was never a top 3 point shooter. Nash probably could have that argument made for him, but he chooses to try and present these other guys with opportunities to score. Then the role players come in, and its been such a roller coaster season for them.

To begin winning regular season games, one would need to do whatever D'Antoni wants. Bring in his style of players. Then you can ask yourself the question, "would that group of players win a championship together?"

D'Antoni got close to the finals, but the spurs and their proven ways have always shut the suns out in the finals minutes of every series. One could then present the argument, that perhaps with Kobe Bryant on this team, he could be that one player to finally bring D'Antoni to the land that nobody would thought he'd ever make.